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maiden flight

On Sun I took my Sig Piper out to the field for it maiden flight after a year of building. I did all the prefight checks check it and checked again. All of the controls were in order. I should have recheck the balance I found out the hard way that it was a little tail heavy and crashed on take off it not to bad the right wing tip and the wing mount the cub door busted. Has any one crash on the maiden flight after doing all the preflight check or am I the only one? [sm=what_smile.gif]

RE: maiden flight

Yeah, a couple of yrs ago a buddy gave me a 90 size Extra 300. It had pretty well been busted up. After about 2 months & untold hrs I had it ready to fly w/ GMS 120 in the nose. It looked better than it did new. We were all going to the airfield around 3 oclock. Well, I got there @ 2. I had checked out EVERYTHING thoroughly TWICE !!! I was going to have it in the air when they got there. Well, I did get it in the air, made 2 passes, the *&&^^* plane was all over the sky !! No matter what I did to trim it, it wouldn't "get right". Long story short; it finally went in as I stood there with that " what the h_ll just happened look". When I got to the "debri field" ( which was of considerable size) I looked down at my radio & &^$%$% it was on "high rates"!!!!!!!!!! The only thing I saved was the engine & a couple of servos. When the guys asked "what is in the big trash sack in the back of your truck?" I said "an experiment in stupidity". - Man that sucker was fast while it lasted, with that GMS !!!!!!! Too much horsepower- just right !!!!!

RE: maiden flight

My Dad enjoys building so I gave him a small TF P-47 a couple of years ago to build. Went up there to his place to test fly it. He and I are both aerospace engineers, we are both full scale pilots. As I taxied to take off I did one last check of everything, sure enough the ailerons were backwards! You should have heard m screaming at me as we taxied back that it couldn't possibly be wrong. I gave the transmitter to another guy at the field who indeed confirmed they were backwards. Test flight went ok for about 5 minutes then the ST 90 flamed out made a high speed downwind landing and bent the Centrury Jet scale struts on touchdown.

RE: maiden flight

Hi fcf
I too crashed my 71" wingspan J3-Cub on the maiden flight. Also on the second one. And the third. I have had two other 71" J3-Cubs over the past 27 years. For some reason I had forgotten that the throttle had to be added slowly, and that right rudder had to be used as needed at takeoff. Mine was simply stalling at take off and snap rolling. I have seen it done many times by others, and a few times by me. The J3-Cub requires a different takeoff procedure than any other model I have flown. Actually, most of our models do a decent takeoff regardless of a poor procedure. Not the J3-Cub. Do it right or she will snap roll on takeoff. Even the landings can be a challenge. Mine is a SPAD that I designed and built from Coroplast, so it has suffered little damage. Mine is very tolerant of CG location. They also love to snap roll in the air when flying slow. Look out for wing tip wash-in. With it there is zero warning of an uncommanded snap roll. One of my favorite planes.

RE: maiden flight

How about when you have a friend maiden a 73" Cap and both ailerons detach? OK. You fix the damage from the subsequent semi-crash landing and a week later take off the second (and last) time with the ailerons reversed. Yeesh.

RE: maiden flight

ORIGINAL: mesaflyer

"aerospace engineers" aka rocket scientist.......apparently, it takes more than a rocket scientist to check reversed ailerons

The point was once you're convinced it's right, esp under the emotional stress of a first fligth, it might take a lot to convince you that it's wrong when you go to do that maiden flight. I knew it was wrong. My dad just couldn't see it, thus the second opinion.

RE: maiden flight

I've seen several crashes on maiden. A couple by the same pilot, and one of my own. The most common cause I've seen is trying to pull the plane into the air before its ready to fly, rather than making a nice long smooth takeoff run. The second major problem is tail heavy.

RE: maiden flight

Well thank everyone! For your responses I donβt fell to bad know.
Although my cub is damage but not to bad I should have it rebuilt with in a moth I want to take my time plus that the time I have working.
There was a lot of good advice about the cub snap role I never thought of it but that is what it did but I got out before it hit the ground. Reading βVillaβ advice that I did rush it on take off I did a short run the tail lifted and it was airborne. After ten feet or less the tail dropped and the plan tried to snap to the left and no aileron control. But this is my second J-3 my first one was a GP 1/5 scale never had that problem.

RE: maiden flight

EESH... I never like reading this section. I literally squint and grind teeth (like watching a horror movie). I honestly think CG is overlooked by pilots the most. I once talked my friend into buying a j-3 cub (never flown but, built with engine) at an r/c swap meet. He had limited experience so me and few friends put his gear in and set her up. All was in check EXCEPT the CG.... found out with me on the sticks for take off in a plane I MADE my friend purchase. Needless to say I had what sounds to be a very similiar flight to yours. It seems alot worse when the planes not yours hahaha.

RE: maiden flight

this all reminds me of the time we launched my buddies sailplane on a highstart..and forgot to turn it on....that was a sick feeling watching it arch up ...climb , head of to the side and slingshot in to the ground still hooked to the bungee ...

RE: maiden flight

I rechecked every thing and I have say that the impact sounded a lot worst then what it was. The fuse. the only places that broke were the joints made me wounder if the apoxy's that was used held. the door frame came apart the same way. the canipy on the other hand cracked in several places that just an easy fix. The wing, on the other hand is worse then I thought. The brace that hold the two section togather broke, so that well have to be replace the wing tip broke in more then I thought but can be rebuild. the left tail fin also broke but it was just a hair line crack. [sm=71_71.gif]

RE: maiden flight

Itβs been a minute but with a tight work schedule Iβve completed the repairs except painting it the right color. The hobby shop I go to did not have any white so I could not mix the colors. How ever I have a problem I tried to find weight I need 16 Β½ oz to balance the CG any tips.

RE: maiden flight

I modified a SIg Kadet Senior into a 20s scale plane, last year. I had to ditch it in the field 4 times; the first 4 flights. It was stable when no control was given but went crazy when the controls were moved. I was getting a complex. I tried rebalancing it, control throws, removing wing struts. Had to cut off the stab and make it larger to gain control. In high school, I ditched class to go fly my new Royal Spitfire I had just finished; Smack! into the ground. So about every 25 years; not to bad.

RE: maiden flight

I took my SSE off not knowing my single rates were set extremely high....I could probably pull a 10 foot diameter loop going 3/4 throttle, haha...The tail feathers actually came off mid flight, I landed it though no problem...walked over there and saw the only thing holding the tail feathers on were the two push rods...haha

RE: maiden flight

ORIGINAL: fcf

Itβs been a minute but with a tight work schedule Iβve completed the repairs except painting it the right color. The hobby shop I go to did not have any white so I could not mix the colors. How ever I have a problem I tried to find weight I need 16 Β½ oz to balance the CG any tips.

Ummm... you need a pound of weight to balance the airplane? Something's wrong. If you add that much dead weight the thing will fly like crud. You need to move gear around or something to reduce the amount of weight added to the airplane.

Edit: I forgot to add that I've used the weights from duck decoys in the past when a lot of weight is required to balance an aircraft.

RE: maiden flight

I've found when you need that much weight , like MJ said, "somethings wrong. I've had very good luck moving the motor either forward or back on the mount. You can make up a lot by doing that & it's not "dead weight". Good luck !!